However, his kindheartedness led to his being swindled by untrustworthy auditors and other dishonest clients, so that he gradually lost his fortune, left the bank and removed to Cologne, where he established his own banking house.

They wept for their friendship, their kindheartedness and the unfortunate need for lifelong friends to soil their hands with anything as sordid as money, and they wept also for their lost youth … But the tears of both women were sweet …

Fanny, in her pity and kindheartedness, was at great pains to teach him how to learn, giving him all the helps and directions in her power, trying to make an artificial memory for him, and learning every word of his part herself, but without his being much the forwarder.